War is difficult but also necessary
Many people talk about leaving Iraq and Afghanistan and bringing our troops home.
No one wants to put our military in a dangerous situation. No one wants war. Loss of one life is too many.
Yet, there are times when we must defend what we believe in. This is one of those times.
Our military is the best trained, brightest, competent, military we have ever had. Technology lets us do things we couldn't before.
Our death and wounded toll is more than we expected, but if you look at previous wars, this amount of military casualties would be one battle. Battles in previous wars had many more casualties than the Middle East wars.
How many were lost landing on Normandy, taking Iwo Jima, Pork Chop Hill, etc.
If we don't stop the terrorists on foreign soil, we will fight them on U.S. soil. The last war fought on our soil was the Civil War. They had tremendous casualties on both sides. Our troops defend our freedom! If we don't stay, we won't need worry about domestic problems. We won't have a country to worry about.
Our enemy knows they can't defeat our military. They will just wait us out. Their statement: "We know the Americans. They get pressure from their citizens when the death toll rises. They leave in disgrace. We will win!"
I pray for our troops, for the wounded and the troops who died. I pray for all their loved ones. I pray for our country. We need to be united again.
Whether you support the war or not, support our troops! They read newspapers and know what the people think and say. Most important is to letting them know, we are behind them 100 percent. I hope we learned a lesson from how bad the Vietnam veterans were treated when they returned home.
Laurel Anderson
Wheeling